Education Foundation

Mission Statement: The mission of the Coral Springs Regional Chamber of Commerce Education Foundation is to raise a minimum of $5000 a year to benefit each of the 7 Coral Springs & Coconut Creek High Schools. These funds will be utilized to assist students by paying for travel expenses incurred for state and national competitions in DECA and BPA which are the high school organizations that prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, management and technology. These competitions ultimately result in the development of school wide projects that serve to benefit many students as well as the community by educating the “Business Leaders of Tomorrow” as well as assisting students with career readiness education and development of business skills.

The Coral Springs Regional Chamber of Commerce has created an amazing partnership with the five community high schools through a committee of hard working volunteer business leaders and educators. The program, called PATHS, Providing Assistance to High Schools, is run by the Chamber’s 501 (c)(3) Education Foundation and is dedicated to the development of future leaders.

The DECA and BPA programs in the high schools prepare emerging leaders and entrepreneurs in marketing, finance, hospitality, management and technology. (www.deca.org and www.bpa.org) Each year, the students choose a project and through community leader involvement, the interactions have ranged from activities such as: mock interviews, a shark tank panel experience in which students could “pitch” the business leader sharks and even a branding project where the students took on local businesses to help with logo design and a marketing planning efforts. After performing at a local level and based on competitive organizational performance measurements, students can move on to regional and national level. Travel expenses and associated costs for these competitions can add up quickly. Over the last several years, the Coral Springs Regional Chamber has been able to provide considerable financial assistance to the schools with much needed funds for the DECA and BPA programs.

In fact in the last couple of years, Coral Springs High School, Coral Glades High School, Coral Springs Charter High School, J.P. Taravella High School and Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School, have been awarded over $30,000 from the Coral Springs Regional Chamber Education Foundation to help minimize costly expenses for the DECA and BPA competitions. “This program is one of the most valuable give back programs we have in our area as it fosters the development of future leaders. It’s an amazing effort that continues to grow each year,” said Cindy Brief, President of the Coral Springs Regional Chamber of Commerce.

Just another great story we bring to our community that all of us can be proud to know takes place in nurturing the future leaders of Coral Springs.